Free Trial

Inside the high-stakes battle to win a New York City casino license

This image rendering from Resorts World shows the Resorts World casino, owned by Malaysian casino giant Genting, a $5.5-billion investment to its gaming facility at the Aqueduct Racetrack in the Queens borough of New York. (Resorts World via AP)

Key Points

  • Eight bidders are competing for up to three New York City casino licenses, each promising thousands of jobs, hotels and billions in annual gambling taxes amid questions about market saturation and the growth of online gaming.
  • The Bally’s proposal on a former Trump-linked Bronx golf course was blocked this week after the City Council denied a key rezoning over environmental concerns, imperiling its $4 billion casino, 500-room hotel and event center plan.
  • The Times Square $5.4 billion casino faces pushback from the Broadway League over potential harm to theaters, but developers counter it will boost ticket sales and include $250 million in community benefits and a Bill Bratton public safety plan.
  • Industry experts say New York City could sustain three casinos and suggest a quicker state windfall by expanding existing racinos—MGM’s Yonkers track and Resorts World’s Aqueduct facility—rather than waiting years for new construction.
  • MarketBeat previews top five stocks to own in August.
  • Limited Time Offer: Unlock powerful research tools, advanced financial data, and expert insights to help you invest with confidence. Save 50% when you upgrade to MarketBeat All Access during the month of July. Claim your discount here.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Caesars Palace casino in the heart of Times Square. A sprawling gambling hall along Coney Island’s iconic boardwalk. A Hard Rock casino complex next to the home stadium of baseball’s New York Mets.

Eight projects are bidding for up to three state licenses to operate a casino in the lucrative New York City market, each dangling the prospect of generational investment in America’s largest metropolitan region.

But one — a Bally's casino proposed on a Bronx golf course once run by President Donald Trump’s company — may have already run out of luck, after city lawmakers denied it a key approval this week.

All of the proposed casinos, in application materials submitted in recent days, promise to create thousands of new jobs, flashy new community amenities in the form of hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues and billions of dollars a year in taxable gambling revenues for the state’s coffers.

How realistic those promises are, though, is an open question, given the proliferation of casinos in the northeast and the explosion of online gambling in recent years, casino experts say.

“The question isn’t whether New York City can support casinos, but whether three full-scale properties can achieve their ambitious revenue projections without cannibalizing each other,” said Sam Chandan, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Gambling industry spending big, but some locals aren't sold

The arrival of full-fledged casino resorts in New York City has been years in the making.

The gambling industry spent mightily to secure approval from New York voters in a referendum authorizing the licensing of up to seven full casinos with live table games back in 2013. But the state initially allowed upstate venues a head start.

The state's Gaming Commission says it hopes to finally award up to three downstate licenses in December. But before then, community advisory committees appointed by lawmakers and local officials will weigh community opinions of each plan.

Nearly all the casino proposals face some degree of local push back.

On Monday, the New York City Council denied Bally's a needed rezoning change following local resident concerns about the environmental impact of its $4 billion proposal, which also calls for a 500-room hotel and a 2,000-seat event center.

Bally’s, which bought the former Trump Links course in 2023, had promised to pay Trump another $115 million if it were to secure a casino license, though that was not among the objections voiced by the Democratic majority on the council nor the Republican lawmaker representing the Bronx district. Spokespersons for Bally’s declined to comment on the future of the project this week.

Not surprisingly, the debate over the proposed Times Square casino has taken center stage, with supporters and opponents recently holding dueling rallies in the Crossroads of the World.

Among the prominent groups opposed to the $5.4 billion plan is the Broadway League, a trade group representing America’s performing arts theaters. It says a casino would draw patrons away from neighborhood businesses and threaten a theater industry still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project's backers have countered that the plan, which calls for renovating a skyscraper that currently houses the Minskoff Theatre, home of long-running “The Lion King” musical, will actually boost demand for Broadway tickets.

The developers, which have also enlisted Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to curate their entertainment offerings, promise $250 million in community projects, including a public safety plan designed by former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and a multimillion-dollar civil rights museum that helped earn an endorsement from the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The two other casinos proposed in Manhattan — one for its West Side and another on its East Side — could face similar headwinds, given their proximity to residential neighborhoods, according to casino experts.

But the proposed West Side resort, near the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey, could reel in business travelers and convention attendees, if it can win over locals, said Soojin Ha, a lecturer at Cornell University’s business school.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, organizers of the quirky Mermaid Parade are among those leading the charge against a Coney Island casino, claiming the plan would remove some of the boardwalk’s iconic amusement rides and block access to the public beach.

Developers of The Coney say the more than $3 billion project, which also calls for a hotel, a 2,400-seat arena and a convention center, will be built on privately owned land and not impact the adjacent public lands where the rides are located.

New York market could support 3 casinos, expert says

Since the 2013 referendum, four full casinos have opened in New York, though all of them are located upstate, miles away from Manhattan. The state also has nine gambling halls offering slot machines and other electronic gambling machines but no live table games.

Some three hours drive north of Manhattan are the Native American tribe-owned Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos in Connecticut. Two hours south are the New Jersey shore casinos of Atlantic City, and less than two hours due west in Pennsylvania is the tribe-owned Wind Creek Casino at the former site of Bethlehem Steel.

Despite the competition from seemingly all corners, New York City’s dense market could sustain three gambling halls, depending on where they’re located, said John Holden, a business professor at Indiana University who specializes in gambling law.

The state could also hedge its bets by awarding two of the three licenses to proven winners: the racinos -- slot parlors built alongside horse racing tracks — that have been successfully operating for years in the New York City area, said Alan Woinski, a New Jersey-based gambling consultant.

MGM Resorts is proposing a $2.3 billion expansion of the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway. Resorts World, owned by Malaysian casino giant Genting, is proposing a $5.5 billion investment to its gaming facility at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.

Those expansions, Woinski noted, could be rolled out in a matter of months, meaning the state wouldn’t have to wait years for the construction of a wholly new site to start reaping the financial windfall.

___

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

Where Should You Invest $1,000 Right Now?

Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this.

MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis.

Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list.

They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now...

See The Five Stocks Here

Investing Strategies To Help Grow Your Retirement Income Cover

Need to stretch out your 401K or Roth IRA plan? Use these time-tested investing strategies to grow the monthly retirement income that your stock portfolio generates.

Get This Free Report
Like this article? Share it with a colleague.

Featured Articles and Offers

Recent Videos

Pelosi Makes Big Bet on Broadcom—Here’s Why It Matters
This Strategy Beat the S&P—And Most Investors Ignore It
NVDA Greenlight: China Sales Spark 50% Rally Potential

Stock Lists

All Stock Lists

Investing Tools

Calendars and Tools

Search Headlines